


Unfurling

by thingsaboutstories (miaoujones)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Love, M/M, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Secrets, additional tags to be added as fic goes on, includes commentfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 12:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2068245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/thingsaboutstories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's the opposite of that," he says. "I don't want to be apart from you—I want to be closer." Rin doesn't turn but at least his gaze slides sideways to Makoto; Haru is looking at him too. This is it: this is the moment Makoto asked them to come here for tonight, the moment he came for himself. But now that it's here and they're all here in it, he doesn't have the right words. So he says, "Can we go into the bathroom? I have something to show you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfurling

**Author's Note:**

> At the time of posting, this is a long-unfinished fill from the Free! Kink Meme. My hope is that by posting it here, I will successfully humiliate myself into finishing it. orz   
>  As a show of good faith, the first chapter here already has a little more than was posted at the kink meme.

When Makoto gets to Haru's, he's surprised to find Haru sitting outside his front door alone. He offers his hand automatically and Haru takes it, letting Makoto help him to his feet. It's hard for him to smile these days, even when he might want to, and what he's thinking right now doesn't make him want to smile at all, so he doesn't even try. At least he can keep his voice low so it will sound steady in a way he doesn't feel when he says, "Is Rin not"— _coming_ —"here yet?" 

"He's inside." Their hands separate, falling to their sides. "He was waiting over there for a while," Haru says, nodding at the stone steps leading down to the street, "but then he decided he didn't want you to see him like that, so he went in."

Makoto's heart clenches; he's a few minutes early himself, which means Rin... "Haru, you shouldn't tell me that, if he didn't want me to know."

Opening the door, Haru looks back over his shoulder. "But I want you to know," he says, and Makoto's heart doesn't sink but it does press up against his lung. He turns away from Haru's gaze but it isn't any easier to breathe that way.

They go inside wordlessly. Rin gets to his feet as soon as they enter the living room. "Are you breaking up with us?" His brow is furrowed and he has that blush he sometimes gets, high on his cheekbones and across the bridge of his nose, when he's working himself up to anger so he won't slip into tears.

Makoto feels himself flushing, too, only his is from shame. He knows his behavior has been off lately but he hadn't realized just how much it's been hurting the two of them. Before he can answer Rin, Haru says, "He's not." Makoto looks at him and when their eyes meet, Haru says, softer, "I don't know what's going on, but I know that's not it."

For a moment, in their connected gaze, Makoto can breathe, and he does. Feeling Rin's eyes on him, he turns to confirm Haru's words—but Rin's gaze snaps away when Makoto's touches it. "I hate it when you two do that psychic thing," he mutters, looking even closer to crying.

Makoto feels like crying, too. He's exhausted. Not by them but by himself. His situation: no, it's not a _situation_ , it's his life. And it always will be. And he's just so tired...

He's tired of lying to them. Of keeping them on the outside. 

"It's the opposite of that," he says. "I don't want to be apart from you—I want to be closer." Rin doesn't turn but at least his gaze slides sideways to Makoto; Haru is looking at him too. This is it: this is the moment Makoto asked them to come here for tonight, the moment he came for himself. But now that it's here and they're all here in it, he doesn't know how to say it.

"So why have you been pushing us away?" Haru says into the silence, gentle, coaxing.

Makoto bows his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

Rin is turned to him now, arms folded across his chest. Makoto knows him well enough to know it's defensive, not aggressive, as if he's shielding himself. "What is it, then? What the fuck is up with you lately, Makoto?"

"I'm sorry," Makoto says again, helplessly. This isn't going how he wanted it to, though he can't blame Rin. He's been the worst boyfriend, the worst _friend_ for weeks... 

"Rin," Haru says. "He's trying."

Rin turns his head away. "Try harder."

Makoto draws in a deep breath but his voice shakes anyhow when he says, "Can we go into the bathroom?"

Rin turns back to him, giving him a hard look; Makoto feels Haru's gaze on him as well but he stays on Rin, afraid he might not get Rin back if he looks away now. 

Finally Rin says, "Why~?", leaning on the beginning of the word so it drops without inflection—but an emphatic curiosity surfaces in the middle, pushing the end of the word up.

Makoto knows it's a strange request. The last thing he wants is to make this weirder for them than it has to be—and it does have to be weird—but he thinks it might be impossible for him otherwise. "I want to tell you—I came here to tell you something, and it just...it will be easier there."

"You can't tell us here?"

Makoto shifts uncomfortably. "Well, I have to show you..."

Rin is intractable. "You can't show us here?"

Makoto shakes his head miserably. 

"Okay." Haru is already turning. "Let's go to the bathroom, then."

They don't talk as they go down the hall. When they're all standing in the bathroom, Makoto says, "Could we shut the door?", even though they're alone in the house. Rin is closer but even before Haru moves, Makoto knows he'll be the one to do it. He's expecting a cutting remark of some sort from Rin but nothing comes. When Makoto looks at him, he's biting his lip, the worry he's been trying to keep down risen to his face.

Makoto starts to undress. "Makoto," stress is evident in Rin's voice, "what's going on?"

"Um." This is even harder than Makoto thought it would be. And he thought it was going to be the hardest thing he's ever done. "I guess I should start by telling you I'm adopted." That's barely the surface of it but it's big enough in and of itself, and he pauses there.

Behind him, Rin asks Haru if he knew that. Makoto doesn't hear a reply but thinks Haru must have shaken his head. No one outside his immediate family knows; his brother and sister don't even know everything yet.

"Makoto..." Rin says. "There's nothing wrong with being adopted. You're not—what are you doing?"

Makoto can't talk, can't look at them. He shakes his head, watching the water he's just turned on fill the tub. He knows he's behaving more strangely, beyond strange... he wants to tell himself it will be all right but the truth is, he doesn't know.

Still, this is what he came here to do. He could miss that first moment, the one that would have taken words, because there was still this wordless one to come. But this is it.

So he turns off the tap and climbs into the tub, settles himself in the water. He takes a deep breath, dares to look at them: they're still here, looking at him, and he can only hope they'll be here when he comes up again. 

He takes another breath, holds this one, sinks beneath the surface even though he doesn't have to, and lets go. It dances all along beneath his skin, the feeling he doesn't have a word for, that he doesn't think there is a word for in any human language; he yields to it and guides it at the same time, giving himself to it and taking it for himself, becoming himself...

When he comes up, he opens his mouth to breathe as if he's never tasted air before. His eyes are still closed but he knows they're here: he can hear them breathing, both of them. He turns his face to them, opens his gaze on them:

Haru's eyes are wider than he has ever seen them. Rin's are bright with tears. They're holding hands, but he doesn't think they know it.

Makoto unfurls his tail, letting it slap over the edge of the tub.

They don't say anything. Makoto knows he should be the one to break this silence he created but he doesn't know what to say now. He looks away, feeling shaky even though they're still here, they haven't walked out on him, and that was all he could have asked from them. 

In his peripheral vision, he sees Haru step forward, reaching out—and then Rin catches him by the wrist with a sharp, "Haru!" Makoto's heart sinks. He knew rejection was a possibility and that it would be more likely to come from Rin, but he wasn't prepared for the weight of the ache.

Then Rin says, "That's fucking rude. Ask permission before you just go and molest him."

Makoto looks up. Rin has that high blush of his going, and a relief surges through Makoto so intense he can't tell whether he's going to laugh or cry. He doesn't do either, though his eyes are almost as bright now as Rin's, his mouth curved like Haru's.

"May I touch you?" Haru asks, his fingers fluttering in the air. Makoto nods and Haru kneels by the tub, his fingers fluttering through the water now, quieting as they come to rest on Makoto's skin. "Soft," he murmurs. "I thought it would be more rubbery..." 

He watches his hand as it begins stroking lightly and Makoto watches it too, pale against the blackness of his tail. Haru's fingers are steady but Makoto feels himself fluttering inside his skin everywhere Haru touches him.

"Now I get it," Rin says, so quietly he might be talking to himself, except that he seems to be addressing Makoto: "The impression you give off when you're in the water." Makoto looks up at him but Rin is still looking down, his thoughtful gaze following the caress of Haru's hand. "That orca vibe."

Makoto looks down again, too, trying to see himself the way they're seeing him: the slick black of his tail, the patch of white curving below his hips and the black-edged white of his tail flukes' underside, facing up as he reclines in the tub. Above the waist his torso is mostly human-looking, but streaks of orca black stretch up his sides and around the back of his shoulders, widening to engulf his arms from his biceps down to the tips of his webbed fingers.

"Sorry," Rin says. Makoto looks up to tell him not to apologize for what he said—and stops as Rin brushes the back of his hand against his eyes, his brow furrowed again, his flush deepened. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"It's all right," Haru says, his hand continuing to stroke Makoto's tail as he turns to Rin. "It's because it was something so beautiful..." He turns back, smiling at Makoto as their gazes connect. "He's so beautiful." 

But Rin shakes his head. "No, that's not it. He was beautiful before." 

Even as he blushes more, Makoto smiles more.

"Oh!" Haru says, his hand stilling. "You have the orca teeth too." Makoto's blush shifts hotter as he realizes he forgot to keep his mouth closed when he smiled. Haru is gazing at him intently. "Can I touch them?" 

Makoto nods and opens wider. If it were Rin, he would have kissed Makoto now, touched with the tip of tongue... But this is Haru and he uses his fingertip, and it's just as intimate as a kiss.

Haru takes his time, stroking the enamel of the crowns, fingertip lingering over each sharp point. He sits back on his heels when he's satisfied and smiles at Makoto, and the way Makoto is fluttering inside, he feels like Haru is still touching him.

He casts his gaze up at Rin, standing quietly, his hands curled at his sides. "You can touch, too," Makoto says, and means to add, "if you want," but it comes out, "please."

Their eyes meet; Rin blinks in the gaze, takes a deep breath, nods. He steps closer to the tub and Haru starts to move for him but Rin rests a hand on his shoulder. "No, you're fine there." He settles himself on the other side of Haru, and Makoto tamps down the quick pang that Rin didn't want to kneel closer to him. When Rin reaches in he doesn't touch Makoto at first, swishing his hand through the narrow strait of water between Makoto and the side of the tub.

And then he touches Makoto's tail, his mouth falling open into a soundless "o." He skims down the length, scooping up water and sluicing it over the part of Makoto's tail extended above the surface, dousing his flukes, and Makoto's eyes fall shut in expected pleasure, his tongue arcing along the roof of his mouth as he emits a series of clicks.

When he opens his eyes, they're both looking at him. "Are you," Rin starts. He takes a breath, tries again: "Are you actually part orca, then? There's more to it than how you look?"

"I don't know," Makoto says. He's talked about this with his parents but the best way they can think of to find out is DNA testing—and they don't know how to do that without risking exposing him. 

"It doesn't matter," Rin says, which is what his parents say too. "I mean, of course it _matters_ , because that's part of who you are," which is also what his parents say—always _who_ and not _what_ —and so Makoto has a pretty good idea how the sentence is going to end even before Rin says, "I just mean, it wouldn't change how we feel about you." 

His parents have never blushed like this when they've said it, though, and Makoto doesn't hide his smile. "So this doesn't make you love me more?"

"We love you the same as ever," Rin says. Makoto doesn't miss the way he nudges Haru with his foot, and he feels a slight flush that Rin is thinking the same thing he is: that this might change things for Haru...

Sure enough, Haru says, "It does make me love you more." Rin kicks him harder this time but Haru ignores it, his focus on Makoto unwavering. "Not because you're an orca or a merman or anything else. Because you trusted us with this part of you. Because you're giving us this secret to share." A new seriousness shades his expression. "We won't let you down, Makoto."

The swelling of Makoto's heart reaches up to the base of his throat but Haru's name is already in his mouth and it trips off his tongue, light and low. 

Makoto glances at Rin and finds him with his head resting on his arms, folded on the edge of the tub, smiling at Haru too. Sensing the gaze, Rin turns his smile to Makoto, and Makoto feels his own mouth curving up more even as his vision blurs. 

As Makoto is brushing the spring of tears from his eyes, Haru says, "No, but it is kind of fantastic, isn't it? You're an aquatic apex predator—nothing can touch you in the ocean."

"Except the ocean itself," Rin says and they both look at him. "That's what it's always been, hasn't it? You're afraid the ocean will take you back one day."

Makoto's throat swells closed with something other than his heart. He nods.

Haru's arms slip around his neck. "I can understand that," he says, "not being willing to give you up. But you don't have to worry, Makoto—Rin and I won't let the ocean have you back, no matter what."

Makoto doesn't say it but _that's_ what he fears more than anything. It's true that he's afraid of the ocean taking him back; there's so much up here, too much he doesn't know how to give up. He can survive underwater, though; but the ones he loves—if they saw the ocean take him, they would try to save him, and if they were dragged under...

He doesn't say anything for a while. Haru sits back but doesn't stop touching him and neither does Rin. Makoto hasn't closed his eyes—his imagination is much stronger in the dark—so he can see they both want to say something; but they're looking at his face, not steadily but in quiet glances, and maybe they can see that he does, too. They pet him, soothing along his tail and his near arm, and it feels so nice. Patience isn't Rin's strong suit, or Haru's either, really, but with every touch that's what they offer him; and he accepts, breathing deeper and steadier with each stroke, sucking in the deepest breath yet when he's ready and blowing it out slowly.

"I don't remember much before I was found after a storm," he says then. It must be a non-sequitur to them but they only encourage him to go on with more gentle touches. "I remember living in the water—not so much actual, individual memories as an _impression_." He pauses, closing his eyes as he reaches for the inexpressible sensations still embedded in him, like the ocean is flowing through him, like it's in his blood, in his bones, in his organs—in his heart and in his skin.

He can feel their hands on his skin, no longer stroking but still comforting in their simple touch. He remembers the first human touch he ever felt: "Do you remember the old fisherman I used to be friends with when we were kids?" Opening his eyes, he looks at Haru, who nods. Makoto nods, too, and takes another breath to go on. "He found me stranded on the beach." Hurt and scared and alone; he remembers that pretty clearly, and the way the fear left him when the old fisherman looked into his eyes and, even though he couldn't understand the sounds, he knew he wasn't alone anymore... 

"My parents didn't live in Iwatobi then but he knew them and he thought—well, he took me to them." He can't help smiling a little now: "They always tell me it was love at first sight."

Glancing off, Rin says something under his breath that sounds like, "Of course it was," and Makoto feels another helpless smile come on. 

"They took me in," he resumes. "Even though I was so strange, and I could have been dangerous—actually," he breaks off, his mouth slanting into a half-grin, "I _was_ kind of dangerous. I already had the teeth." He pulls up his lip to tap at an orca-sharp tooth. "You know that scar on the back of my dad's hand?" Haru's eyes widen and Rin nods. "Yeah," Makoto says.

"So even though I was dangerous and unknown, even though they could have gotten recognition for turning me over to a government agency or probably made a fortune selling me to a private collector, they kept me. They didn't just take me into their home; they took me into their _family_." The tears this time are such good ones he doesn't even try to brush them away. Rin leaves his tail to find his hand, curling around it. "They did everything for me; gave up whatever they had to. They turned the tub into a saltwater bath for me to live in, until they realized I also had a completely human form. They still let me fill the tub with saltwater to soak in whenever I want."

"We can do that here, too," Haru says. "If you want." Makoto feels himself color. That wasn't why he told them about the saltwater bath—but he knows Haru knows that, and he also knows Haru would never offer something he didn't mean. And he'd kind of love to soak here at Haru's sometimes, so he lets himself smile as he nods. Haru smiles too before he looks down, his fingers slipping into the water between Makoto and the side of the tub. "I'm going to need a bigger bathtub, though."

"Why, so you can have sex with him like this?" Rin says. Haru nods and Rin takes in the seriousness of his expression. "Get a much bigger tub, then," he says, unable to hide the flush creeping up the back of his neck even as he turns his head.

Makoto ducks his head but he's sure he hasn't hidden his new smile from either of them.

When he looks back, they're looking at him, as if they're waiting calmly and patiently for something—for him, he realizes. For more of his story; for whatever he'll share of himself with them.

Makoto wants to share everything. That's why he came to talk to them tonight.

Sometimes it's not easy to find the words, though. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes as if he can find the ones he needs in the dark; opens again when he feels their hands soothing over his skin again.

"The fisherman." He takes another breath, not as deep, easier. "The fisherman came to visit me all the time. I thought of him as my family, too." 

Easier doesn't mean easy and Makoto falls into another pause.

Before it can lengthen, Haru says, "He gave you your first goldfish."

Makoto smiles. "That's right." The old fisherman gave him so much: his life up here, his family, those goldfish— "And then he drowned. He found me on that beach... and the ocean—the ocean took him away..."

Sadness washes through him; and in its wake he feels the rising tide of fear, the one that's always with him but that he tries to keep locked up deep down, sweeping all his words away. He's never spoken it aloud but it's not an unnameable fear; no, he knows its name very well and how it wants him back: the ocean wants its own, and not just its own; the ocean wants what it wants—

Somehow, they hear the words anyhow. "The ocean wasn't exacting revenge," Rin says, at almost the same time that Haru says, "It didn't take him just because he took you."

Makoto nods. He appreciates that neither of them tried to tell him it was just a storm but still, they're from the earth and they don't know the ocean the way he does: they don't understand how cruel, how capricious it can be...

_~SPLASH!~_

Haru's arms are wrapped him again while Rin is holding Makoto's hand and has one knee up on the edge of the tub like he means to climb in. Makoto doesn't think he said any of that aloud—Haru must have had a psychic moment. And maybe Rin did too this time.

Makoto settles into their embrace. Breathes. Breathes and breathes...

As the two of them sit back, Makoto looks down his body to his tail, watches his flukes furl and unfurl.

"When was the last time you swam in this form?" Haru asks.

Makoto keeps looking at his tail. "It's been a while." He hopes they didn't hear the sigh in his words; this is enough, what they're giving him right now is more than enough.

Then Rin says, "Would you swim in the ocean if we were with you?" 

The fear tries to well up again. Unable to speak while he pushes it back down, Makoto can only shake his head at first. "If it tried to take me back while you were with me—if it took you, whether purposefully or not, while it was taking me—"

They're still touching him, soothing him. "What about a pool?" Rin tries.

"I thought of that but it's too risky, since our pool is outside. Even at this time of night, someone could walk by and see me..."

"Well, then." Rin's grin is so infectious Makoto feels himself starting to smile too even before he knows why. "What about Samezuka's? It's indoors, and bigger than Iwatobi's—you want to really _swim_ , right?" 

Makoto looks from Rin to Haru and back, absorbing and reflecting their smiles. "Is that all right, though?"

Rin's smile flashes softer. "Like Haru said before, we won't let you down." His brow arches, his grin slanting up as something occurs to him. "Anyhow, Captain Mikoshiba gave me a copy of the key. He told me to be responsible, and I can't think of anything more responsible than taking care of those who are most important to me."

"I don't think that's what he meant," Haru says. 

Makoto is thinking the same thing but Rin dismisses it with a wave of his hand. "The point is, we can go there any time to swim. We can go right now, if you want."

Makoto can't stop smiling. "I do want."

"It's settled, then." Rin stands, then hesitates. "Are you able to change back to your human form on your own or do you need something to trigger it?"

"I can control my form," Makoto says. "I don't even need water, although it feels much better this way."

"So you can change back right now, if you want?" 

Makoto nods: and does so. 

When he looks at them again they're looking at him, as full of open amazement as when he showed them his orca form; their amazement gets inside him, makes him feel light and full.

 

On the way to Samezuka, he sits between them. As the train leaves the station they reach for him wordlessly. Makoto hasn't held hands like this since he was a little kid. He smiles, lets them take his hands, and holds on right back.


End file.
